A federal judge has thrown out a criminal case against Donald Trump, who was charged with hoarding government documents and classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago compound after leaving office, then obstructing law enforcement attempts to get them back.
The bombshell decision from Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, argues that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution and “usurps” the role of Congress in funding that office.
A ruling in the case arrives at the beginning of the Republican National Convention, where Trump is expected to formally receive the party’s nomination for the presidency after he was nearly killed at a campaign event in Pennsylvania.
Smith’s team will likely appeal Cannon’s ruling, which would bring yet another legal fight involving the former president to the Supreme Court, where three of his appointees are seated. But it gives Trump yet another legal victory after the nation’s highest court granted him sweeping “immunity” from some criminal prosecution.
“In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny,” Cannon wrote in an order on Monday.
“The Court is convinced Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme — the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” according to Cannon.
Trump’s attorneys have filed several long-shot attempts to delay and ultimately dismiss the case — widely considered among the strongest against him — as he navigates his campaign for the presidency.
Trump hailed the decision on his Truth Social, arguing that the dismissal “should be just the first step” in ending the “witch hunts” against him. Trump was criminally convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York, and he is criminally charged in another investigation under the special counsel’s office for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump also is similarly facing charges for election interference in Georgia.
The ruling from Cannon — who has faced widespread criticism for her handling the case since Trump was indicted in June 2023 — appears to fly against precedents established by the Supreme Court and several other federal court rulings involving special counsels, which also operated under the Trump administration and other presidents.
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